


Ladies Choice

by sultrysweet_tumblr (sultrysweet)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Maiden Queen, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 12:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4787048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sultrysweet/pseuds/sultrysweet_tumblr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina has always let others dictate her life choices while Marian has always been more hands on. They grew up differently yet think somewhat similarly and fell for the same man...until they see that being chosen isn't just about one person choosing another. It's about choosing each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She should hate her or fear her or worry about what she’ll do once she’s back, but she doesn’t. It’s a strange thing Regina feels as she stares down at the thawed Maid Marian while she has the other woman’s heart in her hand. But Marian isn’t the other woman. She is.

With a deep breath, Regina closes the small distance between them and carefully pushes the woman’s red, red heart back into her chest. A second passes and then Marian’s eyes pop open as she gasps awake. At first her eyes are unfocused, but it doesn’t take long before they settle on the woman above her.

There’s a moment when Regina thinks Marian will lurch up and strangle her, but the sharpness in her eyes dulls before the woman does anything malicious.

“You saved me,” Marian states with a look of wonder and slight confusion directed at Regina.

“All I did was put your heart back where it belongs,” Regina stiffly replies before she clears her throat and almost gives herself a burn with the amount of force she grips and rubs her wrist with her hand.

The Snow Queen had sacrificed herself to make up for all her wrongdoings and with her gone, the effects of her magic had subsided. All traces of her icy spell on Marian had faded. Apparently, that can’t be said for the magical barrier at the town line, but Emma will figure it out. She kind of has to if Elsa and Anna ever wanted to leave. And Regina has a feeling those royals won’t be the only people to cross the town line once they fix the problem.

“Marian,” Robin breathes out his relief from his place behind Regina.

He sets aside the chest that held Marian’s heart during her frozen days and smiles at her, but his eyes are sad and his expression a bit pained. Regina knows the truth he’s hiding from Marian and she understands the struggle he faces as he sits down on the bed next to his wife. He takes his wife’s hand in his and starts to cry. It’s not how Regina had pictured the first man she’d fallen for since her indiscretions with Graham would look like, but she supposes it’s an emotional time for him and accepts that he’s a whimpering, adulterous man that might just regret his time spent in that same vault with her.

“I should…leave you two alone,” Regina says as she fights off her own tears.

Her voice is weak and it cracks like something fragile under pressure and she gulps to keep her welling up emotions at bay. It does nothing to stop her from looking so torn up on the outside and the couple in front of her have looks on their faces that tell her she’s not being subtle about her heartbreak at all. Why should she be subtle though? She’s just lost the person fairy dust confirmed was her soulmate. She’s sure of it.

He has a son and his wife is back from the dead almost twice over. It’s a miracle really. A second chance.  _His_ second chance. Maybe he was never  _her_  second chance. Maybe the fairy dust was wrong. Or maybe soulmates weren’t always a romantic thing. Or maybe he’d been her soulmate once upon a time, but so many years and curses and worlds between them could have altered their fate. She’d made a choice not to meet him back then. She had been too afraid to lose the only thing she had and knew and was willing to use to her advantage because it was all she understood in her life: her anger. She couldn’t let go and be happy then so why, when she was finally ready to let go of that anger and embrace the happiness she might have, would she be granted that opportunity—that priceless fortune—now?

When she thinks about it, her relationship with Robin was doomed from the start. Though Marian was dead when they’d first met and still dead when they’d started to see each other, Robin had once had a wife he loved who was the mother of his son. She’d died and it had been a hard time for him and though when they’d first met he’d seemed to be over it as best he could have been, she was still going to live in the shadows of a dead wife placed on a pedestal. Marian could do no wrong when Robin was preserving her perfect memory in his head. It was just as it had been with King Leopold, except the age difference was far less substantial and Robin’s son hadn’t shared a secret that led to her beloved Daniel’s death.

Emma then brought Marian back from a time just before Regina had had the woman killed for suspicion of knowing where Snow White was hiding and refusing to tell the Queen or her guards where the princess-turned-bandit was. That’s when the real trouble had started. Marian was back and her memory wasn’t as preserved, but Robin was still married to her and she was furious about him seeing the woman responsible for her death. It was the worst thing he could have done and yet, Marian was the one who continued to suffer. She was frozen only days after her reunion with Robin and Roland and then Robin had decided as long as Marian couldn’t stand in the way of their relationship he wanted to see where things would go with Regina. Only then had they slept together, the first time in their entire—though not very long at all—relationship. And, of course, just after that happened, the Snow Queen just had to kill herself and stop all of her madness, which saved Marian’s life and destroyed Regina’s. And possibly Robin’s if he chooses to tell Marian everything that transpired.

“I’m so sorry,” Robin says to Marian, and Regina can’t be sure he’s told his wife anything or if he’s just sorry about what happened to her.

Regina hasn’t been paying attention to the couple since she started to head for the exit, but now she sees Robin’s eyes on Marian and Marian’s eyes on her and all of her attention is pulled back to the impossible situation before her. This is her fault. Whatever happens is her doing because of her choices and her selfishness. She was supposed to be above it, better than the more evil parts of herself. She’s supposed to be good now and she should have put the dying woman who’s no longer anywhere near death ahead of her needs and wants and hopes and–eventually–desires. She’s saved the woman, along with Robin and the handless wonder and even Emma, from the snow monster before Marian had frozen over, but it appears that was the last good thing she might ever do for them. Nothing else she’s done seems to matter anymore when she realizes what trouble she’s caused and who she’s become. Poor Roland is her first thought after she recognizes just how much she’s hurt Marian even if Marian still doesn’t know all the details.

But soon she knows because Robin just starts blabbering on about his mistakes and that he wishes he could have saved Marian from her ice coffin with a kiss and how he’s not sorry he loves Regina but that he wishes it isn’t all so complicated.

Regina backs away from them with tears in her eyes that are ready to fall as soon as she blinks. When Marian looks from Robin to her as she backs herself against a wall, she does blink and her cheeks are stained and one of the tears runs down to the scar above her lip. She takes a deep breath as she keeps her eyes locked on Marian who keeps her gaze steadily fixated on her and then Regina tastes the salt from the tear on her lip. No other tears fall, but she still feels awful, which is definitely odd since she’s never really cared about Marian in this tricky equation before and yet she’s sorry and ashamed and she still sort of wants Robin but wants to take it back at the same time.

“I don’t know what to do,” Robin cries and rests his head on Marian’s chest, above her heart that Regina knows he hears and feels beating in its rightful place once again.

Marian appears calm, her eyes still on Regina and only Regina. She almost seems unfazed by her husband’s actions and sudden clinginess. It amazes Regina and she’s slowly starting to see something she never would have looked for on her own, but it’s right in front of her and for the first time she can see it as it forms. Marian’s stronger than she’s given her credit for and Robin isn’t the man he once might have been when Tinker Bell pointed him out in that tavern long ago. Marian is the backbone of her little family, much like Regina feels she’s the backbone of her family. She’s of course the mother and Henry is her family, not her only family but the only family she counts at this point. There’s room for the Charmings and Emma, but things are complicated and even if she counts them they all have moments of doubt and weakness and are very rarely prepared for the things they have to face, unlike Regina who always knows to and  _does_ expect the worst, the darkest, and plans accordingly.

“I don’t want to choose,” Robin admits and Marian looks away from Regina for the first time in several long minutes.

“Then don’t,” Marian responds as she looks down at the top of Robin’s head. “I’ll make this simple.”

Robin lifts his head from her chest and furrows his brow. He’s confused, as usual, but so is Regina. She’s also a little frightened as to what Marian might do given the woman’s determination and all that she’s had to endure hearing from her pathetic husband. Pathetic? Yes. Pathetic seems fitting. Robin has shown his true self and Regina doesn’t much care for it. He’s not the man she thought he was and maybe he never was.

Marian sits up and brushes off the skirts of her dress.

“Roland will have us both in his life as long as I continue to live,” Marian informs. “But there’s no choice to be made for you, Robin.”

Robin shakes his head, his face still scrunched up in his confusion.

“I’m not sure I understand,” he confesses, though the evidence of that is too obvious that he hadn’t needed to say it at all.

“ _I’ve_  made a choice,” Marian calmly, a little cooly, says. “I  _don’t_ choose  _you_.”


	2. Chapter 2

Some weeks have passed since Marian declared herself free from Robin. Her words aren’t legally binding and they’re still married as much as they were when she’d travelled through time unscathed with Emma, but the woman no longer spends her time smiling at his side while they take Roland to the park or treat him to anything but ice cream. She does it alone and allows Robin time with Roland, but everything they do is separate now.

Regina watches it all unfold even while she spends most of her time reading the story book with Henry for Operation Mongoose. She wants to feel terrible for what she’s done to that family, but whenever she’s out with Henry and spots Marian there’s something there. She feels that strangeness settle over her that she felt in the vault before she’d returned Marian’s heart. And although it’s strange, it doesn’t bother Regina a bit. Within the last few times she’s caught Marian’s gaze, it’s started to feel normal.

Today, Regina’s feeding the geese with Henry using stale bread she would have used to make homemade croutons for salad if Henry hadn’t asked to spend time with her away from their search for the story book author. They laugh about how Henry caught Emma dancing around the apartment in running shorts and a long sleeve shirt the other day because he claims it was the worst dancing he’s seen to a ridiculous song he never expected his birth mother to actually like. She also managed to slip in her socks and fall flat on her ass when she’d attempted the Tom Cruise move from Risky Business, which Henry then pretends he only knows from Wikipedia’s summary of the movie and not because he’s seen it himself. Regina knows he’s lying, he’s about as smooth at lying as his blonde mother, but she lets it slide because she’s too happy with him to scold him about it.

After Henry shares a few other stories about life at the Charming’s unbelievably cramped apartment, Regina sees two familiar figures walking along the pond’s edge across the way. Roland is jumping up and down with a wide smile as he looks at all the ducks in the water that haven’t flown south for the winter just yet and Marian is smiling as she walks close behind him. Her eyes never leave her son as he enthusiastically throws bread into the pond and giggles as a few ducks swarm and peck at the bread. He cheers as those ducks come close to finishing off the large piece of bread then turns and holds out his hand to Marian, who continues to smile as she rips another, smaller, piece of bread off the roll she’s holding and gives it to him.

Regina’s enthralled in the beauty of Marian’s smile and her carefree attitude. It’s like a weight has been lifted off the woman’s shoulders and she supposes Marian has felt heavy ever since she came to Storybrooke and found out about her husband and Regina’s involvement, regardless of how little or how far it had gone by then. If only Regina felt that light about it all right now. Instead, she feels a small sense of dread because even if Marian’s happy, Roland’s being shuffled between his parents who now barely speak to each other without starting an argument. Marian always wins.

As though Marian can read her thoughts and knows Regina’s thinking about her, she looks up while Roland’s distracted by the ducks again. Her eyes immediately lock on Regina’s and Regina isn’t sure what’s happening, but there’s a shiver running down her spine that’s surprisingly pleasant. It’s so pleasant, in fact, she hopes her bra is well-padded enough to conceal just how good she feels to be staring across the pond at this woman. Because Henry will be scarred for life if it’s not.

Marian doesn’t look angry or furious or in any way upset, though Regina thinks she probably should be considering all that Regina’s done. Instead, Marian’s gaze is unreadable past the point that she holds no ill feelings toward her, the other woman. She doesn’t look happy or outraged. Just neutral. And then Marian blinks and her lips curl into a smirk.

Regina gulps. There’s an intensity in Marian’s gaze and her smirk that Regina recognizes. She’s stared at Snow White and Emma Swan and anyone else who’s gotten in her way just like Marian stares at her now. That smirk is an intimidation technique, but Regina always wore it because she genuinely felt pleasure from the fear and trepidation, or in some cases the fierceness and challenge, on her subject’s face.

No, Robin isn’t the man Regina thought he was, but Marian is definitely not the woman she thought she was either. With that knowledge comes an interesting realization. She likes the woman Marian appears to be. Marian who smirks and has this certain strength. Marian who’s someone willing to make her own destiny with the second chance she has at life as she refuses to let her husband ruin it with his endless apologies and begging and seemingly eternally screwed up face Regina never questioned until the man broke down in her vault those few weeks prior. Marian is a force to be reckoned with and Regina is impressed.

The more Regina sees of Marian and sees  _in_ Marian, the more she comes to understand that she wants to reckon with that force, reckon with Marian. She isn’t entirely sure what exactly that means, but she’s certainly intrigued.  There’s more to Marian and she’s still not sure about the specifics of that, but she wants to find out. She wants to know more, wants to do more than stare at each other from a distance. She wants to talk.

Marian hasn’t looked away from her yet and Regina’s thankful for that because just before either of their attentions are redirected to their sons, Regina smirks back at her.

“Uh, Mom?”

Regina comes out of her little haze and turns to look at Henry who’s so much closer to her height now and she sweetly smiles at him.

“Yes, Henry?”

“You’re staring kinda hard at Marian.”

“Oh. Was I?”

Regina nervously licks her lips and hopes that Henry doesn’t get too curious, not this time. She wants to figure out a few things before she has to have a talk with her son about what she might be feeling for another woman, let alone a woman whose husband she’s slept with after she’d told Henry she was moving on and learning to let go of him.

“Yeah, like  _really_ hard. It’s kinda weird.”

“I’m sorry,” she forces a smile, her cheeks partially rosy from embarrassment.

Her son has just witnessed her staring a little too long at another woman. It’s not that her attention was on another woman that makes it problematic, but the fact that things might have been a little too heated to display so openly in front of her child no matter what his age. The Marian thing was once in reference to the woman’s mere return from the past, but now Regina’s positive “The Marian Thing” is turning into so much more.


	3. Chapter 3

Not being the mayor anymore has its perks. It gives Regina more time to do whatever she pleases and she doesn’t have to worry about other’s complaints. She doesn’t have to attend town council meetings and she doesn’t have to sit at a desk all day. What she can do is finally approach Marian when she’s alone. Roland is with Robin for the day, playing with the Merry Men—Will Scarlet once again included in the band of outlaws—and she has time to herself to enjoy a cup of tea or cocoa, whatever’s in her steaming mug, at Granny’s.

That’s the first place Regina goes in her attempt to get closer to Marian because ever since the woman told Robin he wasn’t her choice, she left the Merry Men’s camp in the woods and took up residence in a room at the Bed and Breakfast. That’s where she finds Marian now. She’s at a table with her hands cupped around that steaming mug and her eyes are soon on Regina.

Marian stares for a moment, her expression yet again neutral, before she casts her eyes down at the content of her mug. She lifts it to her mouth and takes a sip and Regina finds herself moving toward her.

She sits alone at a table near the window. The morning sun is golden as it shines through the front of the diner and adds warmth to Marian’s natural radiance. It captivates Regina to see Marian’s brown curls appear a few shades lighter in the sunlight and the way that light seems to make only her glow while the rest of the diner’s patrons fall into the background, their faces hidden in grayscale while Marian is highlighted by a spectrum of colors.

Ruby asks Regina if she wants anything just as the former Mayor reaches Marian’s table. Marian looks up, her eyes inquisitively widened a little as she lifts her head from the lip of her mug, and waits for Regina’s response.

“Coffee, please,” comes Regina’s answer while she holds Marian’s gaze. She only looks at Ruby when she finishes her order with, “Two cream, one sugar.”

Ruby nods and glides back behind the counter to the coffee pots while Regina turns her focus back to Marian.

“May I,” she asks as she motions to the empty chair in front of her.

“Please,” Marian casually says and sets her mug down on the table.

Regina smiles and takes a seat across from Marian.

“I wanted to check in with you after everything,” Regina carefully speaks to her as though they’re equals, which she feels they are since she’s no longer Mayor and she sees things in Marian that remind her of parts of herself. “I’m sure it hasn’t been easy.”

“Actually, it’s been quite easy in the last week or so,” Marian replies, somewhat guarded but open enough to reveal such truths.

“Well, in any case, I’d like to apologize. I shouldn’t have engaged in anything with Robin once you were here. I’m not going to apologize for seeing him before you came through the portal with Emma, because you weren’t exactly living then.”

“Completely understandable.”

Regina raises an eyebrow, surprised and intrigued and so very pleased to be having such a civil conversation with this woman.

“There’s a bit of a long story behind why I chose to stay with him, but I won’t bore you with details. I just wanted to make it clear that I don’t intend to come between the two of you again. The only person I’m concerned about now is Roland.”

“Thankfully he’s adjusting well enough. It hasn’t been a seamless transition to have me back in his life and I’m not with his father, but he’s happy so far.”

“Good. I would hate for him to suffer from all of this…drama.”

“It would be a shame,” Marian agrees. “He’s such a sweet, young boy and it’s a very confusing time for him considering I’m back after so many years.”

“That must be a difficult conversation to have.”

“Yes, it is indeed.” By the look on Marian’s face, it appears her not-so-dead status is just as confusing to her as she says it is for Roland.

Regina clears her throat and repositions herself in her seat.

“I should probably also apologize for having you killed in the first place.”

“Only if you actually mean it,” Marian responds with a defiant gaze.

“I can honestly say I do,” Regina smoothly said without hesitation.

A moment of silence and unbroken eye contact lingers between them before Marian smiles. Regina smiles back and her coffee is then set in front of her. She thanks Ruby who cheerily hums, “Mhmm” before she leaves them to their conversation.

“I’m not the person you knew— _know_ ,” Regina’s quick to correct herself. “I’ve changed. The things I’ve done are…unforgiveable and though I don’t regret them, I don’t celebrate them either.”

Marian frowns.

“You don’t regret them and yet you expect me to believe you’re sincere in your apology for what you’ve done to me?”

“I can never regret the sequence of events that led me to my son. If I did, I would be saying I would risk never having him if I could change a single moment, a single choice that brought his other mother and myself to this world.”

Marian’s expression softened with comprehension.

“You might think I don’t deserve him,” Regina starts, “even if you understand why I feel the way I feel about my past and the things I’ve done. And I’ll admit there are a lotof days I don’t think I deserve him either. But I wouldn’t have changed if it weren’t for him and I love him more than anything. I haven’t felt that way about anything or anyone in a long time. He’s everything to me and I won’t do anything to lose him. It’s happened once before and I will  _not_ let him slip away again. So if you don’t take me for my word that I’ve changed, believe  _that_.”

“You saved me from that snow thing,” Marian states like it makes sense to bring that up just now. “Maybe you did it because of Robin, but you did it nonetheless. Roland’s told me a lot about you from before I came back, and a few things from when I was frozen, and you don’t sound like the monster I knew you to be. And if the Savior can tell me with absolute certainty you’ve changed while the rest of the town seems to accept your presence so easily, it must be true.”

“I wouldn’t say they accept it easily,” Regina says with an amused smile as she thinks about the dwarfs and the Blue Fairy and a few others that would only refer to her in a dire situation when every other option has been exhausted.

Marian tilts her head to one side and curiously scans over Regina with a controlled grin, her lips pursed to hold back what appears to be some kind of interest on her face.

“Maybe I’ll have the pleasure of getting to know you as you are now,” Marian practically purrs.

Many thoughts and images flood Regina’s mind and it’s like her brain short circuits, but after a quick moment she grins.

“I don’t see why that couldn’t happen. Perhaps at some point you’ll share that pleasure with me.”

Marian chuckles at Regina’s comment while she brings her mug back up to her lips. She takes a longer sip of her drink and as she does so, her eyes flick up to Regina’s. Regina’s eyes darken and glitter with playfulness and she continues to grin across the table at Marian as she then sips her own drink.

Yesterday they’d exchanged smirks across a pond with their sons beside them. Today they skip past flirting and hit on each other in a public place full of other Storybrooke residents and it isn’t even ten in the morning yet. Still unsure of what Regina has to explore with this woman, she can definitely say she’s already having more fun with Marian than she’d ever had with Robin.

With all the villains that appear in town like roaches coming out of the woodwork, Regina can say for the first time in quite a while that she’s having a good morning. A very good morning.


	4. Chapter 4

Robin comes to her a few days later. He tells her he talked to Marian while they were passing off Roland for the weekend and he says they argued about her. She doesn’t think that’s so strange, but Robin explains that it isn’t because of their history it’s because Marian’s decided it would be nice for Roland to spend some time with Regina. Apparently their son misses her and Marian supports her visitation rights like she’s one of the divorced parents in their falling apart family.

She feels a little honored that she’s being welcomed back into Roland’s life and she’s happy it’s Marian that’s willing to allow it. It’s not as much of a shock as it might have been before, not after their conversation in the morning light those few days ago at the diner, but there is some shock in knowing Marian’s latest permissions involve the woman’s son.

Robin’s still there and Regina remembers she should probably say something to him, if only so he’ll leave. She’s actually tired of his face now and she doesn’t want to spend more time than absolutely necessary around him. It’s something she and Marian have in common. Truthfully, they seem to have a little more in common each day and it makes Regina wonder if maybe the pixie dust was misguided in its search for her new love. Maybe it found Robin because the pixie dust knew he’d one day be tied to Marian. But it was too soon to call whatever was building between her and Marian love. It was also too soon to think about things like pixie dust and fate. The only thoughts of fate, of destiny, it’s not too for are that she and Marian agreed to make their own. Not necessarily together, but Regina’s starting to think she wouldn’t mind if that’s what happens. Making their own destiny, right now, is just another thing they have in common.

“Is there a problem with Marian allowing me to see Roland,” she finally asks the man with the unchanging expression.

“It is when I thought she wanted you and me as far apart as possible,” he replies. “She chose to end things with me and now she’s okay to let you be around Roland? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“If Marian didn’t want me to see Roland, you would have convinced her it was fine, but now she’s the one saying it won’t be a problem if I see him and suddenly you’re upset?”

“Yes!”

“Why is that?”

“Because…my wife is becoming friends with my mistress! The woman that killed her back in our world and the reason Roland grew up without his mother. That doesn’t sound strange to you?”

“What sounds strange is that it’s only okay for me to be around your family if I’m sleeping with  _you_!”

Regina’s outraged and rightfully so. This isn’t about Robin. Not even Marian’s choice was ever really about him either. Yet he seems to make himself the center of their world, their lives, like he’s the only thing that could inspire anything out of them like a decision or their changes of heart.

“Things with Marian are difficult,” he slowly growls. “I’m trying to fix things so Roland has both of his parents. Then she says she thinks Roland might like to see you. That…complicates an already complicated situation.”

“Well, you’re doing a fine job of fixing things,” she sarcastically remarks. “You fight with Marian on everything and don’t respect her decision to no longer call herself  _your_   _wife_. That’s hardly the right or honorable thing to do.”

Robin sighs and he’s done with this conversation, Regina guesses, because he shakes his head and walks away.

She doesn’t like how he dismissed himself, but she’s happy to be rid of him. Now, it seemed, she has a reason to have another visit with Marian.

* * *

“Regina,” her name effortlessly falls from Marian’s lips like dripping honey once the woman’s opened the door to her.

“Hello, Marian,” she greets with a small smile before she’s wordlessly invited inside. “It’s Robin’s weekend?”

“Yes. I left Roland with him earlier today. Though, he wasn’t too pleased with a suggestion I made when I did.”

“To allow me to see Roland if it’s what he wants?”

Regina knows the answer and she doesn’t like to pretend to be a fool, but she wants to ease her way into her conversations with Marian. They may have hit on each other at the diner, but she still isn’t sure where she stands with Marian.

“He told you,” Marian states, though Regina knows she’s looking for an answer.

“He came to see me before I came here,” she nods.

“I was the one who didn’t want you around Roland when I first came back and now that I’m okay with it he decides to make a scene. Of course.”

“He claims to want to fix things with you and I assume us becoming friends might impede his efforts.”

“I never told him we were becoming friends.”

“I can’t even say that we are,” she agrees with a longer lasting smile, not as small as the one she’d given Marian at the door.

Marian smiles back.

“Women talk,” Regina continues. “I think he’s afraid of the things I’ll tell you. He might be worried that I’ll share lurid details about certain things that will pull you further away from him.”

“Is that what you would do if we were friends,” Marian asks with a questioning look.

“No, not even if you asked.”

Marian smiles again.

“Then he should know he has nothing to worry about.”

“I don’t care what he’s worried about. I realize, though I’m in the middle of all this, that he shouldn’t have strayed if he ever expected to get back into your good graces. Not to mention, he seems to sway from one of us to the other whenever it seems most beneficial to him.”

“That’s very true,” Marian admits with a soft laugh.

Regina looks Marian over with an appreciative gaze before she says, “If Roland does decide to see me, we could arrange for a play date. Henry’s too old to call it that, but I’ve seen him and Roland together. Roland seems to like him and Henry enjoys his company. It would also give the adults some time to play as well.”

“I’d like that. If Roland asks about you when he’s with me, I’ll let you know.”

“Good,” she smiles more sinfully than sincerely.

“Seeing as how he’s not here, however, and you came all this way…”

“My dear Marian, are you suggesting we spend this time getting to know each other,” she teases.

“You wanted to give me that pleasure,” Marian subtly grins. “I’d say now is the perfect time to, what’s the modern expression? ‘Hit this off’?”

Marian’s words alone thrill Regina. The idea that this woman isn’t angry and seems to like her enough to flirt, even though neither woman has outwardly expressed their desires for the fairer sex until now, is exciting. She likes where this all seems to be going and she told Marian she has no intention of getting between the woman and Robin, but how is it getting between them when Marian’s sending out just as many signals as Regina? How is it getting between them when Marian’s made her choice clear?

Marian’s just fine without Robin and Regina’s almost completely forgotten about the things she’s done with him in her vault so she can do this. She can explore these feelings, this rush she feels whenever she’s around Marian, and she can try to make more friends. Then Regina thinks about Emma and how she should allow the blonde to be her friend as well, especially if things with Marian continue on this well. If Marian’s not upset with her and she and Regina are both over Robin, there’s no harm in befriending Henry’s other mother if she has no reason to push her away anymore.

“Where would you like to start,” Regina asks, and Marian motions to the bed.

Regina holds back her satisfaction and takes a seat on the edge of the bed. Marian sits beside her with a small yet comfortable distance between them.

“Let’s start by you introducing me to a few things this world offers that the Enchanted Forest doesn’t.”

“There’s so much to be introduced to, dear. What would you like to experience first? The clothes, the food, movies?”

“I’d like to get out of this dress.”

“I can certainly help with that.”


End file.
